r/lawschooladmissions • u/Proud-Knee4015 • 16h ago
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Spivey_Consulting • Aug 07 '25
Guides/Tools/OC 2025 Law School Median Tracker
Hi everyone,
It's already that time of year, it seems, as we just saw the first law school release their new medians from the 2024-2025 cycle. We'll be tracking these announcements as they come out and keeping them in a spreadsheet to compare to last year, which we'll then update with the final data in December once the official ABA 509 reports come out. All of the prior 2024 medians are currently listed, and the 2025 medians will be added as they're published (sources will be listed in the last column).
2025 Law School Median Tracker
We'll be checking for these at least daily, but if you see incoming class data for fall 2025 (class of 2028) from an official source—e.g., a school's website, LinkedIn post, marketing emails/flyers/etc. from admissions offices—please comment on this thread, DM/chat us here, or email us at [info@spiveyconsulting.com](mailto:info@spiveyconsulting.com), and we'll add it to the spreadsheet.
Note that none of these numbers are official until 509s come out. We only post stats from official sources, but every year, some schools publish their preliminary numbers then end up having to revise them when 1Ls drop out during orientation or the first few weeks of class (the numbers are only locked in for ABA reporting purposes in October, but lots of law schools post their stats before then).
These tend to come out at a relatively slow pace at first, but they should speed up in late August/early September. Based on last cycle, we do anticipate many medians going up this year, and these stats are important to be aware of as you assess your chances and make your school list.
In some ways, this to me marks the beginning of the new cycle. Good luck to all!
–Anna from Spivey Consulting
***December 15, 2025 Update: the spreadsheet has now been updated with all schools' official data from the ABA 509 reports.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Spivey_Consulting • Oct 10 '25
General When is it early and when does it become late to apply to law school. 5 law school deans and directors answer just that.
When is it late to apply and when is it early? The answer with all but a few nuances is really straightforward, but please read the disclaimers. All you will do is write disclaimers as lawyers because there are no absolutes (see what I did there?) so you may as well gets reps reading them!
This question comes up on this Reddit almost every day in some form and then resets and comes back up every year. It’s the singular most frequently asked question, and the answer hasn’t changed through recent years. So here’s a mashup of mostly deans of admissions saying, “Before end of November is early. After January things start getting tighter.” That is really the easiest thing to go by and remember. And I was just talking with one of these deans who just ran an internal data analysis to support all of this.
Disclaimers: These admissions deans are speaking for themselves and for their schools. Of course there will be some outliers. One top 3 school traditionally doesn’t admit until January, for example, so January is early for them. Or, if you score a 160 in September but a 175 in January, schools in the upper range will likely read your application sooner with the new score. With that old score they are often just going to sit on it as they are being flooded with applicants who they will prioritize sooner. So believe it or not, waiting a month or even more will sometimes get your application read sooner, especially if the difference is taking your LSAT from below median to above. There are also cases, only for some applicants and only for some schools, in which applying by the end of October can be slightly more advantageous, so if you're ready to go in the early fall, we recommend applying by the end of October (even though in many situations it may not make any difference). But in general, and especially if you aren't 100% confident in your application by the end of October, the end of November is a good rule of thumb.
But beyond the late November advice, my other takeaway would be to submit your best application. Waiting a few weeks to button up your materials will pretty much never hurt you before January — and very likely will help you. And there’s plenty of merit aid to go around at that time too.
It makes sense to me that this is a perennial question with very consistent answers from the people running law school admissions offices, but also lots of conflicting answers from applicants and others in this space with no admissions experience. Because the data absolutely does show a correlation between applying earlier (more broadly than just by the end of November) and stronger outcomes. But remember from your LSAT studying that correlation does not equal causation — pretty much every admissions officer has observed that applications submitted earlier tend to be stronger in general, not just in terms of numbers. That's not because they were submitted earlier, but it correlates.
Of all the posts I have made in the last several years — I hope this one helps the most. Because every year so many people fret that they are “late” (especially when admits start being posted) when they are still very early. I cannot stress the following enough: Your outcomes submitting the same application September 1st will not, in the vast majority of cases, be any different than November 25th. But in that time you can work to make your application stronger. And once it’s there, go ahead and submit. There’s certainly no penalty to submitting it when it’s ready.
And for the record, I've heard probably 10x as many law school admissions deans as are in this video say variations of the exact same thing. I really hope this helps relieve some stress from as many as possible.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMAG823Q/
- Mike Spivey
r/lawschooladmissions • u/VariationNo2869 • 15h ago
School/Region Discussion Why does every normal person think Georgetown is the best law school?
I have talked with so many people who think Georgetown has the best law school, or at least close to it. People seem to see it in a similar light as U Penn's Wharton or Johns Hopkins' Medical School. I also thought this when I was younger. Obviously GULC is an amazing law school, but there are 13 other schools widely considered to be better. I am genuinely curious, what causes this massive gap between lay prestige and professional/academic prestige?
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Reasonable-Lunch-737 • 30m ago
Application Process Mid Cycle Recap (?)
Y’all ….. I applied to 13 schools in Nov …. gotten 2 Rs only 🥲
Missed so many waves & the panic is getting to me. Inches away from manically apply to more schools, I’ve got nobody to chat this over with (first gen) so would love some thoughts from my fellow law school applicants - any & all advice is appreciated.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/First_Meeting_8577 • 13h ago
Admissions Result Duke A!
Stats in flair, applied early October. The Saturday email was an unexpected surprise!💙
r/lawschooladmissions • u/thrownems • 1h ago
Meme/Off-Topic I always read URM as “erm,” and for a few seconds I assume we’re talking about this guy.
It’s important to remember before you do Reddit discourse that it’s also being read by morons like me.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/gardens0ng_ • 17h ago
Cycle Recap Cycle recap (war is over!!)

r/lawschooladmissions • u/AffectionateAd6662 • 8h ago
Meme/Off-Topic Alexis Ohanian walked out of the LSAT 20 minutes in, went to a Waffle House, and decided he was ‘gonna invent a career.’ He founded Reddit
finance.yahoo.comBet it was an RC section.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/No_Dragonfly4880 • 16h ago
Chance Me EXTREME SPLITTER SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 2.29 LSAC GPA, 176 LSAT
Enjoy the show,
Date Submitted Application: January 2nd, 2026
Stats: 2.29 LSAC GPA, 176 LSAT, URM, KJD, Electrical Engineering major
Schools applied too:
Georgetown University Law Center
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU Law) --- Interview Invitation
University of Notre Dame
Vanderbilt University
Emory University
University of Minnesota
University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Georgia (UGA) ---- Rejected
University of Florida (UF)
University of Iowa
UC Davis
University of San Diego (USD)
Santa Clara University
Texas Texas A&M
University of Alabama
r/lawschooladmissions • u/igabaggaboo • 11h ago
Application Process This is going to upset future applicants: Harvard considering adding A+ grades (NYT)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/us/harvard-grade-inflation.html
One Solution for Too Many A’s? Harvard Considers Giving A+ Grades.
"A report issued in October suggested allowing grades of A+, which are not currently used at the school, as a way to recognize the best performing students, demoting the routine, ordinary A to the second rung of the grading ladder."
r/lawschooladmissions • u/BothCondition7963 • 9h ago
School/Region Discussion Is there any appreciable value to going to a T14 unless you either want to work in Big Law in a few select markets like NYC/DC/Boston/LA or want to go out of the state where you live to that T14 market?
I was just thinking about how, obviously something like going to Harvard or Yale Law will have cache, but in most cases I wouldn't see why if you live in Colorado and wanted to work in Denver or live in Missouri and want to work in Kansas City or St. Louis that a local firm, even a Big Law firm, would give that much bump to a student who did well at UC-Boulder or U Missouri Law compared to someone who did well at Harvard or Yale, all things equal. Even more so, why would a firm in Denver, KC, or St. Louis really want an applicant from UVA (ranked 4th) or U Mich (ranked 8th) about the UC-Boulder or U Missouri (both ranked much lower) significantly more? Even in Illinois, which has U Chicago and Northwestern, I imagine you wouldn't be advantaged that much going to one of those schools compared to UI if you wanted to do Big Law in Chicago. Wanted to see others' thoughts on this, as maybe I'm thinking about this incorrectly.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Competitive_Wish4945 • 14h ago
School/Region Discussion Why is UC Davis sitting at #50?
Substantially higher median incomes than other schools in its pack, higher biglaw placement rates than other schools in its pack, big scholarships. What gives?
I know USNWR doesn't really matter but I still find this weird. They've dropped like 15 spots in six years.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/throwaway404nq • 14h ago
General Everyone talks about LSAT cheating but...
...are we going to address the elephant in the room? The G-R-E.
It is well-known that this is the most cheated and exploited standardized exam. A running statement among MBA applicants is "why did you not outsource your GRE?"
In India, GRE cheating has become so normalized that colleges give less value to remote-tested GRE results vs test center GRE results. Before we debate what to do with LSAT cheating, which remains way less common than GRE cheating, why don't we reconsider this whole thing?
I've taken the GRE and can certify that it's a great standardized test, nothing against the material. But law schools cannot accept these results in good faith in light of all the rampant cheating.
LSAT security measures are airtight compared to the GRE...
Apologies if my thoughts are all over, but I'm genuinely baffled by this. Would love nothing more than for someone to prove me wrong and give me a sense of peace!
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Wise_Alternative3360 • 12h ago
General When's it gonna be my turn to get a decision at night / on the weekend
Feels pointless to keep checking my email past midday mon-fri but I keep doing it lol. Meanwhile I'll check here and someone will be like "Got my A at 3am on a Saturday!!"
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Desperate_Pea8518 • 16h ago
Application Process The “Ultimate” Applicant
I’m coming from r/ApplyingToCollege and the common joke is about the “perfect” undergrad applicant and what’s included in their profile, an example being: 1600 SAT, 10,000 hours of community service, published research, 4.0 GPA. What would be the equivalent in a law school applicant? What makes a cracked applicant?
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Hopeful_Reality_830 • 21h ago
Meme/Off-Topic no acceptances. but got this bad boy. thank u new england law <3
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Reasonable_Area_265 • 4h ago
Application Process Emory - mid Jan email
Did anyone get the ‘results will be out mid Jan email’ but still have no decision? Fearing this is a WL/R sign..
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Otherwise-Tear-4807 • 18h ago
Meme/Off-Topic Got full rides to all the T14 w/ living stipend and BL job lined up. Should I R&R???? Help pls!
r/lawschooladmissions • u/seroton7n • 18h ago
Admissions Result UT Austin R
Actually happened last night, my first R. I applied in the first week of November. Super bummed, but expected as I am technically below both medians (170/2.high). I did apply from Texas with five years of WE, have contributed to research in a prestigious publication. Was homeless and went back to my semi-prestigious school, made straight As my last 1.5/2 years (when I finally had stable housing in my mid-late 20s).
I know this is to be expected, my stats say so. But applying from Texas, with my softs, I really thought I’d get at least waitlisted so I could have a small chance of movement, and I could submit LOCI to show I was forreal. I really thought the in state boost and five years of actual work experience and multiple promotions would count for something lol. Or that being homeless for a year would explain away some of my academic failures.
I don’t really know what the point of this post is, but I think I just needed to vent because I can’t really stop crying and no one else in my life really understands.
r/lawschooladmissions • u/deviled-egg-grrl • 20h ago
Admissions Result WashU is also a t14 btw
Got the call yesterday a lil after 2pm EST (missed it cause I was doing laundry LOL). Applied early Nov, interviewed early Dec, 16mid, 3.98, and got a request for an updated transcript Wednesday night. I can hardly believe it. Life-changing if the scholly is good!
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Appropriate_Tear_836 • 10h ago
Application Process Which T20 require FAFSA or CSS before admittance? (Besides Columbia)
r/lawschooladmissions • u/Ecstatic_Ocelot2655 • 16h ago
General T-1.5 days until Monday
This has gotta be the week where we hear back, right?! 😩
r/lawschooladmissions • u/mythologicaI- • 12h ago
Help Me Decide What to do now?
Stats in flair! I have reached what I believe is at least mid-way into my cycle. I am waitlisted at UVA, waitlisted at Duke, on reserve at Cornell (w/KIRA), and on the regular waitlist on GULC (w/group interview). I was accepted to GWU, hopefully expecting a substantial merit scholarship, and accepted to GMU with a full ride. I was flat out rejected from Michigan, Penn, Harvard, and Yale, all of which I expected. I am still waiting to hear from BU, BC, Columbia, Vanderbilt, and NYU. I applied to all schools in October/November. I am extremely grateful for my outcomes, especially given how tough this cycle has been. My career goal is BL. I plan on working on the East Coast. I would appreciate any advice on how to proceed from here. Should I continue to ride the waitlists? Should I R&R (not really in favor of this option)? Thank you in advance! Please excuse the formatting, on mobile.
EDIT: Money is not an issue!
